NCJ Number
125579
Editor(s)
M L Forst
Date Published
1990
Length
246 pages
Annotation
Over the past decade, increasing attention has been paid to the problem of missing children and homeless youth and to law enforcement's role in dealing with the problem.
Abstract
For many parents whose children are missing, law enforcement agencies cannot do enough, no matter how seriously they take the case and no matter how hard they try to make a recovery. Law enforcement policies and procedures differ with regard to handling various types of missing children cases. In about half of the States, law enforcement personnel have a legal mandate to enter names of missing juveniles into the National Crime Information Center Missing Persons file. Many police departments still have a waiting period to take a report on or start an investigation of a missing child; this practice has been subject to criticism. Issues associated with law enforcement's response to missing children basically concern juvenile rights, status offender detention, and what priority should be placed on missing children. Book chapters specifically focus on statutory and case law on missing children, the development and operation of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, State efforts to deal with the problem of missing children, and the Interstate Compact for Juveniles. The authors also discuss the problem of missing children in large cities, the growing phenomenon of parental abductions, the sexual exploitation of children, the relation between law enforcement and private missing children's organizations, social and psychological reasons why juveniles run away from home, and a model program for runaway youth in Los Angeles. 169 endnotes, 2 tables and 4 figures.